Products > Test Equipment
MHS-5200A Serial Protocol Reverse Engineered
janoc:
Hello,
I have this same generator too and perhaps this is a completely dumb question, but what is your use case for this? Why are you datalogging the frequency?
Are you trying to characterize the stability of the instrument?
EDIT: Yes, it was a dumb question - on re-reading I have found that you are logging the EXT_IN external input, so using the device as a counter, not generator. D'oh! :palm:
nickcres13:
Janoc,
Not to worry! Indeed using as a counter... I think this could be a useful tool for certain measurement tools, such as monitoring a frequency in a lab. I was hoping to use it to monitor the frequency of a crystal oscillator, ore more specifically, a quartz crystal monitor, whose freq changes as mass is deposited on it (and by calibrating, one can measure minute amounts of mass that get deposited on it)...anyhow, let me know if you come up with any cool uses for the script! And also if you would like it to have other functionality. Its easy to send and receive other messages to the device...
Nick
janoc:
Yes, I know, I have the same generator on my desk. It is not stellar, but hard to beat for the price.
My have asked the original question because I thought you were logging the frequency of the generator - which isn't of much use when measured/provided by the generator itself. So I thought I am missing something there.
nickcres13:
Indeed! Yup im using it to monitor the frequency of external sources...though what is very interesting to me (and as other people in this thread have pointed out) is that if you wire the output into the EXT_IN, the value of the input and output don't agree! For example, you set the generator to "sine wave" at 10 Mhz and read that signal on the EXT_IN, and you will see something like 10.000123...so the counter and generator don't agree, even though they are presumably running on the same clock! Not sure why this is, maybe someone who knows more about FPGA/signal generators can comment...
janoc:
--- Quote from: nickcres13 on January 16, 2017, 04:23:33 pm ---Indeed! Yup im using it to monitor the frequency of external sources...though what is very interesting to me (and as other people in this thread have pointed out) is that if you wire the output into the EXT_IN, the value of the input and output don't agree! For example, you set the generator to "sine wave" at 10 Mhz and read that signal on the EXT_IN, and you will see something like 10.000123...so the counter and generator don't agree, even though they are presumably running on the same clock! Not sure why this is, maybe someone who knows more about FPGA/signal generators can comment...
--- End quote ---
Really?? :wtf:
I haven't tried that on mine. But it is well possible it is the consequence of some firmware problem - the generator has plenty of jitter so who knows how they have implemented the DDS and how accurate the frequency is. I certainly wouldn't use it for something where accurate frequency generation or measurement mattered.
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